Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to a method and apparatus for masking illumination of an undesirable feature in a field of view and/or for selectively illuminating a target of interest in a field of view, and in particular to a method and apparatus for masking an undesirable feature in a field of view and/or for illuminating a target of interest in a field of view using a lidar camera and a spatial light modulator.
Description of the Related Art
Active imaging systems, such as a lidar system, contain an illumination source as well as an imaging detector. The laser illumination source is a major contributor to the size, weight and power of the overall system. In order to maximize the efficiency of the system, the illumination of the scene must be optimized to avoid wasting laser power.
Illumination control for lidar systems has been implemented in a variety of ways, from reshaping beam profiles from Gaussian to top hat with conventional optics, reshaping from Gaussian to an array of beamlets using a diffractive optical element, and reshaping to arbitrary patterns using an acoustic-optic modulator.